Tales of the Abyss = love.
I haven't been this enamored of a video game since Wild Arms 3 (I still love you, darling, don't worry). I may fic this once I'm done with the game, that's how much I love it. The lovely, it blinds.
But like all great things, ToA has it's black spots, and anyone who knows anything about fandom what-so-ever will not be surprised to learn it comes from shipping, though fortunately it's on the Japanese side of the fandom more than the English one this time. When I went off to look for ToA art and doujinshi, what did I find?
That the most popular Jade het pairing is Jade/Anise.
Let me explain.
This is Jade. He is sex. He is a brilliant, snarky, manipulative son of a bitch who wears glasses and carries around a honking big spear. He is like a more benign version of Kabuto. He is also thirty-five.
This is Anise. She is love, because she is a complete and utter bitch, has Fon Master Ion completely whipped (not that it's hard to make Ion whipped, as anyone who's played the game knows), and is surprisingly mature and cynical for her age. Which is thirteen. However, she looks about eight.
WRRRRRYYYYYYYY.
Speaking of pairings, how nice it is to ship a pairing that not only has some overt, in-game evidence, it actually has a sizable fandom (on the Japanese side at least) and doujinshi to go with it. *rubs hands together* Natalia/Asch, me love you long time. I love Natalia like burning and can't wait to get into the meat of her story, since I was already spoiled on the "what" of her big plot twist, but not the "how" or the "why" and I'm really looking forward to what they do with her character in regards to this.
Asch has preeeeetty hair, very much like Axel and Renji. In terms of stupidity, he falls somewhere between the two, mostly because he lets his BURNING BISHOUNEN ANGST cloud his judgment, but Natalia is more than smart enough for the both of them, so I'm not worried. Did I forget to mention that he's being voiced by Sasuke's English VA? Yuri Lowenthal seems to have a lock on the "angry, angsty young man" VA market.
Have I mentioned how much I love the female characters in this game? Aside from my burning Natalia love, I really like Tear, even though she doesn't grab me the way Natalia does: Tear's a smart, cool, collected and effective warrior with a fetish for cute things. What's not to love? And Anise cracks me up, because she is one hardheaded, fierce bitch for a thirteen year old (for an example of this, see the lj cut text XD) who rides a giant puppet to fight and her constant drooling over Luke (or rather, his money) in the beginning is funny as hell.
Spoilers for up to Daath after the cut.
Asch, I think I might love you, but you're an idiot and you and Luke obviously share some kind of moron gene, comments about replica personality not being derived from the original aside. Sure, Luke's going to listen to your warnings about Van after you spent several episodes telepathically cackling at him and insulting him and then TRYING TO ATTACK TEAR BY TAKING CONTROL OF LUKE'S BODY. THINK BOY, THINK. I know you're busily being consumed with your angst and all that, but that pretty little head of yours is not just a decorative enclosure for the brain THAT YOU NEED TO USE.
Speaking of which, I'm guessing that the Asch/Luke replica deal is an effort on Van's part to circumvent the Score's prophecy about the destined hero somehow, since he thinks the Score is pure evil and warping humanity. Why was Asch kept around after Luke was cloned from him though? I'm assuming that Luke was kept in the house for the last seven years so no one would notice the amazing resemblance between him and God General Asch. But why didn't Asch try to speak up or stop Van? He obviously hates Van and what's going on, so why did he just sit back and do nothing until now? Part of that could be because he was only ten when everything started, but he has strength and power now as a God-General. Hopefully the story will provide a believable reason.
Hee at how "Asch The Bloody" is actually the one most reluctant to unecessarily take life. Or, as Van sneeringly puts it, "too dainty".
Lord, once again, the cliched "villain was only pretending to care about their naive victim and secretly despised them for years" thing crops up with Van and Luke. It would have been slightly more original--not to mention better, IMO, from a story and character development standpoint--if Van had come to care about Luke through the seven years they spent together, but decided that he needed to be sacrificed for the sake of his plans anyway. Then again, Van's an ass and doesn't look like he's going to be bringing much to the table beyond the typical "evildoer hates the world for the wrongs it has done to them and decides to take revenge on existence itself using metaphysics" but ToA has been fairly good otherwise with character development and taking stereotypes a peg or two beyond their comfort zones, so maybe he'll surprise me. Or not. I won't particularly care with Van either way.
I can't wait to see more of Dist's cackling ass as well as his plush ROCKET CHAIR OF DOOM, because he makes me giggle helplessly every time he comes on screen. I'm sure whatever history of grievances he and Jade share is going to be retarded on an truly epic level.
I'd like Legretta to survive, but since she's obviously head over heels for Van, and the villain's loyal love interest tends to bite it either protecting him or trying to take out the heroes' party, I'm not holding my breath.
Cantabile, when do you show up? Your character design is interesting as well as awfully pretty.
It's very strange hearing Iruka-sensei's voice coming out of Guy's mouth every time he speaks. Luke is being done by Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Jade's voice is so very familiar, but I just can't place it. If I wasn't so afraid of running into more spoilers I'd check Wikipedia, but..no. Maybe IMDB has the info.
Even though Luke has improved greatly now that he's eaten his giant helping of humble pie, he needs to stop abusing Mieu, even if he's not anywhere near as bad about it as he used to be. I had no idea why Mieu continues to take Luke's shit so patiently (if I was him, I would have roasted ass-boy like a giant hotdog ten times over by now) until I realized that Mieu, like Luke, probably sees the treatment as a penance for all the death and damage he caused. Still doesn't make it okay though, but Luke's improved a lot, personality-wise, so I'm sure he'll continue to soften up as the game progresses.
But like all great things, ToA has it's black spots, and anyone who knows anything about fandom what-so-ever will not be surprised to learn it comes from shipping, though fortunately it's on the Japanese side of the fandom more than the English one this time. When I went off to look for ToA art and doujinshi, what did I find?
That the most popular Jade het pairing is Jade/Anise.
Let me explain.
This is Jade. He is sex. He is a brilliant, snarky, manipulative son of a bitch who wears glasses and carries around a honking big spear. He is like a more benign version of Kabuto. He is also thirty-five.
This is Anise. She is love, because she is a complete and utter bitch, has Fon Master Ion completely whipped (not that it's hard to make Ion whipped, as anyone who's played the game knows), and is surprisingly mature and cynical for her age. Which is thirteen. However, she looks about eight.
WRRRRRYYYYYYYY.
Speaking of pairings, how nice it is to ship a pairing that not only has some overt, in-game evidence, it actually has a sizable fandom (on the Japanese side at least) and doujinshi to go with it. *rubs hands together* Natalia/Asch, me love you long time. I love Natalia like burning and can't wait to get into the meat of her story, since I was already spoiled on the "what" of her big plot twist, but not the "how" or the "why" and I'm really looking forward to what they do with her character in regards to this.
Asch has preeeeetty hair, very much like Axel and Renji. In terms of stupidity, he falls somewhere between the two, mostly because he lets his BURNING BISHOUNEN ANGST cloud his judgment, but Natalia is more than smart enough for the both of them, so I'm not worried. Did I forget to mention that he's being voiced by Sasuke's English VA? Yuri Lowenthal seems to have a lock on the "angry, angsty young man" VA market.
Have I mentioned how much I love the female characters in this game? Aside from my burning Natalia love, I really like Tear, even though she doesn't grab me the way Natalia does: Tear's a smart, cool, collected and effective warrior with a fetish for cute things. What's not to love? And Anise cracks me up, because she is one hardheaded, fierce bitch for a thirteen year old (for an example of this, see the lj cut text XD) who rides a giant puppet to fight and her constant drooling over Luke (or rather, his money) in the beginning is funny as hell.
Spoilers for up to Daath after the cut.
Asch, I think I might love you, but you're an idiot and you and Luke obviously share some kind of moron gene, comments about replica personality not being derived from the original aside. Sure, Luke's going to listen to your warnings about Van after you spent several episodes telepathically cackling at him and insulting him and then TRYING TO ATTACK TEAR BY TAKING CONTROL OF LUKE'S BODY. THINK BOY, THINK. I know you're busily being consumed with your angst and all that, but that pretty little head of yours is not just a decorative enclosure for the brain THAT YOU NEED TO USE.
Speaking of which, I'm guessing that the Asch/Luke replica deal is an effort on Van's part to circumvent the Score's prophecy about the destined hero somehow, since he thinks the Score is pure evil and warping humanity. Why was Asch kept around after Luke was cloned from him though? I'm assuming that Luke was kept in the house for the last seven years so no one would notice the amazing resemblance between him and God General Asch. But why didn't Asch try to speak up or stop Van? He obviously hates Van and what's going on, so why did he just sit back and do nothing until now? Part of that could be because he was only ten when everything started, but he has strength and power now as a God-General. Hopefully the story will provide a believable reason.
Hee at how "Asch The Bloody" is actually the one most reluctant to unecessarily take life. Or, as Van sneeringly puts it, "too dainty".
Lord, once again, the cliched "villain was only pretending to care about their naive victim and secretly despised them for years" thing crops up with Van and Luke. It would have been slightly more original--not to mention better, IMO, from a story and character development standpoint--if Van had come to care about Luke through the seven years they spent together, but decided that he needed to be sacrificed for the sake of his plans anyway. Then again, Van's an ass and doesn't look like he's going to be bringing much to the table beyond the typical "evildoer hates the world for the wrongs it has done to them and decides to take revenge on existence itself using metaphysics" but ToA has been fairly good otherwise with character development and taking stereotypes a peg or two beyond their comfort zones, so maybe he'll surprise me. Or not. I won't particularly care with Van either way.
I can't wait to see more of Dist's cackling ass as well as his plush ROCKET CHAIR OF DOOM, because he makes me giggle helplessly every time he comes on screen. I'm sure whatever history of grievances he and Jade share is going to be retarded on an truly epic level.
I'd like Legretta to survive, but since she's obviously head over heels for Van, and the villain's loyal love interest tends to bite it either protecting him or trying to take out the heroes' party, I'm not holding my breath.
Cantabile, when do you show up? Your character design is interesting as well as awfully pretty.
It's very strange hearing Iruka-sensei's voice coming out of Guy's mouth every time he speaks. Luke is being done by Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Jade's voice is so very familiar, but I just can't place it. If I wasn't so afraid of running into more spoilers I'd check Wikipedia, but..no. Maybe IMDB has the info.
Even though Luke has improved greatly now that he's eaten his giant helping of humble pie, he needs to stop abusing Mieu, even if he's not anywhere near as bad about it as he used to be. I had no idea why Mieu continues to take Luke's shit so patiently (if I was him, I would have roasted ass-boy like a giant hotdog ten times over by now) until I realized that Mieu, like Luke, probably sees the treatment as a penance for all the death and damage he caused. Still doesn't make it okay though, but Luke's improved a lot, personality-wise, so I'm sure he'll continue to soften up as the game progresses.